Students' Site Will Offer Literature Summaries

Four Harvard students are making life a little easier for high school students scrambling to read about Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield.

The students' nascent Web site, theSpark.com, will launch the newest literature summaries on the market, in the style of Cliffs' Notes: "Sparknotes."

On April 15, Eli W. Bolotin '98-'99, Chris R. Coyne '99, Max N. Krohn '99 and Sam A. Yagan '99 will launch Sparknotes as the newest service on their Web site. Sparknotes will review 40 of the most popular books in high school literature classes.

"There are hundreds of Web sites trying to capture the high school and college markets," Coyne said. "So far, none have succeeded, and this has become one of the biggest races in the history of the Internet."

According to Bolotin, Sparknotes will include elements like plot summaries, character analyses and discussion of symbolism, all researched and written by Harvard students.

The founders of this new student business venture will select between 20 and 25 researchers from a pool of Harvard applicants. These researchers will work during spring break to write their Sparknotes.

The application process to write for Sparknotes requires students to submit two writing samples, a description of their writing experience and general academic information. While the researchers are currently being chosen for spring break, Yagan said students can apply after break by visiting www.theSpark.com/jobs.

As for concerns about undermining high school students' education, Bolotin said he was not worried.

"Let's all be realistic. Even the most studious of us don't do every bit of reading," Bolotin said. "This is a way to help high school students out. There's a market for it and I'll sleep easy knowing some people out there are reading our summaries instead of the books."

"Clearly, we intend our Sparknotes to be used as study guides, and not substitutes for the books themselves. Having access to the summary and commentary information in our guides--we hope--will help students to better understand the texts," Yagan added.

The range of services provided by theSpark.com does not end at book summaries. The Web site also matches students who express interest in dating each other via an e-mail notification, similar to the service provided by datesite.com.

The young entrepreneurs give the site an added twist through the figure of "Pimpin' Cupid," the friendly cherub who facilitates these matches.

In addition, the site also offers a "purity test" feature.

Since the March 14 launch of the site, theSpark.com has generated more than 50,000 registered users and traffic has reached up to 100,000 hits in one day, according to Yagan.

The four co-founders have used personal capital to fund the business, and will use projected revenue to continue to develop the site.

"TheSpark.com plans to eventually provide a variety of features and products geared towards high school students, college students, and young adults," Yagan said.

Poonam Sharma '99, editor of the recently published book The Harvard Entrepreneurs Club's Guide to Starting Your Own business, lauded these four seniors' ability to successfully target a demographic group they are familiar with.

"Recognizing and addressing a demand from within a market they knew they could reach, they have exemplified the entrepreneurial spirit," Sharma said. "They not only worked hard and thought creatively--they had fun while doing it. That is the essence of what it means to be an entrepreneur."

Bolotin said the group is actively soliciting advertisements, and already has spoken with several potential advertisers.

Despite the race for Internet success among young entrepreneurs, the founders of theSpark.com said they have confidence in their product.

"The winner will need a solid combination of content and marketing capabilities," Coyne said. "We have both, and we plan to succeed."